I’d also like to link to Diary of Why’s 2007 post on online dating profile advice for men; I know the First Rule of Dating Advice like the back of my hand, but she does make some good points and it’s worth a read. In particular (much like my post) she doesn’t tell men how to BE, she advises on marketing yourself.

Gist: Women at OKCupid think 80% of the men on the site are below average (i.e., unacceptable to consider dating). If that isn’t pretty good evidence of hypergamy in action, I’m not sure what is, really.

“Gist: Women at OKCupid think 80% of the men on the site are below average (i.e., unacceptable to consider dating). If that isn’t pretty good evidence of hypergamy in action, I’m not sure what is, really.”

“Gist: Women at OKCupid think 80% of the men on the site are below average (i.e., unacceptable to consider dating). If that isn’t pretty good evidence of hypergamy in action, I’m not sure what is, really.”

Brendan, that same OKC article states that although 80% of women think most of the men are below-average, they’ll also expend more energy messaging them. Men, while more charitable of judging the attractiveness of women, will focus on messaging only the women who are most attractive (i.e. definitely out of their league).